Ferdinand von Mueller

1

MS is an annotation by M on a file cover enclosing a letter dated 26 February 1866 from E. FitzGibbon, Town Clerk of Melbourne, to McCulloch, as follows:

I have been directed by the Health Committee of the Council of the City of Melbourne to do myself the honor to state that their attention has been drawn to the erection, now in progress of a brick building apparently a Cottage or dwelling house upon a portion of the Botanical Gardens reserve near the angle of the Domain Road and Anderson Street, South Yarra.

The site chosen for the house in question the Committee conceive to be very objectionable, being in the centre of a considerable area of the reserve which was some years since fenced off from the remainder as a zoological garden, and which although soon disused as such has remainder [sic] ever since closed against the public.

The Committee are apprehensive that the present conversion of this space to the purposes of an enclosure for a dwelling house and offices may have the effect of ultimately alienating it from the purpose for which it has been reserved; and they submit that if another house be needed in connection with the Botanical Gardens it can be more usefully placed as a lodge at one of the entrances.

I am therefore to ask that the building of the house in question may not be proceeded with and that the fences by which the public have been so long excluded from this portion of the reserve may be removed.

I am to submit that the importance of these grounds to the Citizens justifies the Corporation in exercising a zealous vigilance for their preservation and to recall to your notice that doubtless with a view of affording the Corporation a voice in the management of the gardens the Mayor of Melbourne for the time being was appointed by His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor under date the 23rd July 1853 (Colonial Secretary's Office) Gl./3151 53/8465, a member of the Managing Committee, although notwithstanding such appointment the Mayor is never communicated with in respect to the grounds.

This letter was referred to M on 2 March.

The building referred to is designed neither for a dwelling nor for an office but constitutes a laboratory for phytochemistry and it is now completed with exception of the rustic verandah & bush ornamentation. It adjoins a stable existing since five years, to which the new building is so far adjoined as to form now a complete structure for the operations and investigations to be carried out. The fence enclosing the small paddock, within which these buildings are situated, lines the garden road on one side. If removed cart tracks in all directions would soon destroy the handsome appearance of the reserve. The area is also required as pasture ground for horses of the establishment in daily use. Treeguards are placed within the paddock for protection of ornamental trees. Moreover if the fences were to be removed the spot would no longer be available as a favorite locality for festivals in aid of charities. It needs scarcely my assurance, that the ground under my control is not likely to suffer, while I have all along shown a keen eye for landscape beauty. A Garden Committee has never existed since I held the Directorship of the Garden, the old Committee having by lengthened nonattendance become absolutely defunct and was abolished by the honor. Capt. Pasley when Ministerial Chief of the department prior to my access to the administration.

2/3/66

2

McCulloch minuted on 6 March: 'The building may be useful but I do not think it is ornamental & it is to be regretted that the building was not put in some less conspicuous place'. M replied on the same day in a further minute on the file: 'I beg leave to observe, that I chose the position for the laboratory to take advantage of an adjoining stable to obtain all the accommodation required for the laboratory work, other wise a much more expensive building would have been needed. The new brick-building is unfinished as far as ornamentation is concerned, but the intended rustic verandah is under work, the brick walls will be painted with ocre and about a dozend large sized pines will be transferred to the ground around the laboratory in April.'

McCulloch wrote to FitzGibbon on 20 March informing him that it was a laboratoy being built, not a house or an office. On 13 April, FitzGibbon wrote again, expressing the Health Committee’s regret ‘that the building was not placed in contiguity to the Botanical Museum, the Director’s residence, or to some one of the entrance gates to the reserve, where it would have had the effect of only adding to existing structures without curtailing the reserve or else of serving as a gate lodge for the protection of the Gardens’. The Committee ‘in the interests of the Citizens and the public’ requested that instructions be issued ‘for the removal of the close inner fence which has so long prevented access’ to this portion of the Botanical Gardens reserve. There is, however, no record in the file of any further action being taken in the matter.